Position Description

The Opportunity
Chicago Public Media is one of the largest and most respected public media organizations in the country. With an unparalleled reputation for creativity and innovation across all platforms, Chicago Public Media provides substantive news and insights, thoughtful conversation and meaningful connections to its diverse audiences throughout the Chicago area, as well as nationally and globally. The organization has a legacy of innovative program development having launched such iconic shows as This American Life, Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me…, and the ground-breaking podcast Serial.

Chicago Public Media engages with its listeners and users across multiple platforms, including broadcast radio, digital streaming, and mobile apps. Its flagship station, WBEZ-Chicago (91.5 FM), delivers a weekly listening audience of over 550,000, and broadcasts throughout Chicago and the surrounding region. WBEZ’s website, wbez.org, is a top-performing website and its newly launched mobile app allows listeners to fully control their experience through its groundbreaking re-player functionality and on-demand platform. WBEZ’s sister service, Vocalo Radio (91.1 FM, vocalo.org), targets a multicultural audience through an urban alternative format.

The organization is on an upward trajectory and in the midst of a transformation from a traditional broadcast radio station to a diversified digital audio service. With a tradition of journalistic excellence and innovation, and financial stability, CPM is poised for growth in a region where private sector print and broadcast news competitors are facing significant challenges.

The Role
We are seeking a passionate, energetic and entrepreneurial individual to ignite CPM’s ability to extract audience insights from our data, to inform business decisions in support of our overall mission and goals. With the emergence of digital audio platforms, tracking and understanding audience behavior is more important than ever. The Manager of Audience Analytics will be responsible for working with data sets to understand audience trends, consumption patterns and donation behavior in order to provide analysis and guide key business decisions. A successful candidate will have strong analytic and communication skills, and have a passion for using data to drive business decisions. We are looking for someone who is a self-starter, someone that attacks complex business questions with data and curiosity and someone that dives below the surface to identify the root cause and “so what” rather than just top level trends. We are looking for an individual that thrives by providing data-driven decision support and business intelligence that is timely, accurate and actionable.

Analyze large data sets to understand how our editorial content is being consumed – what, where, when and how - and develop a narrative around discernable audience trends. Develop actionable insights and recommendations based on the data to inform business decisions.

Deeply analyze audience data to understand how users are engaging with digital platforms and products. Work with Product and Editorial to develop recommendations on ways to improve our digital products based on user data.

Synthesize market and industry data to track competitive landscape for both terrestrial radio and digital products and trends.

Develop presentation materials for key internal stakeholders, board meetings, funder meetings, grant proposals, staff meetings and other communications, rooted in both a quantitative as well as qualitative story.

Work cross-departmentally to understand other groups’ reporting and analytics needs and practices to ensure that we are maximizing all analytics efforts across the organization.

Skills - Experience and Requirements:

Bachelor’s degree from four year college or university

4+ years of hands-on experience in data analysis and reporting

Deep knowledge of and experience with Nielsen and Google Analytics. Experience with other broadcast, streaming, and podcast data sources is a plus

Excellent Excel and PowerPoint skills. SQL skills, working knowledge of BI tools (ex. Tableau and experience with Salesforce and Salesforce Marketing suite is a plus

Excellent communication and data presentation skills

Experience with relational databases and the ability to work with big data sets

Strong collaborative/team work skills; a problem solver who is results oriented

Passion for media and technology

Desire to be part of a mission-oriented, dynamic organization that serves the Chicago community

The essential functions described above are not all-inclusive and may change periodically to meet the needs of Chicago Public Media (CPM). The information contained in this job description is not intended to create any contractual or other legal commitment. Chicago Public Media may change the content or format of this job at any time in its sole and exclusive discretion without notice.

At Chicago Public Media, we are looking for people who are curious about the world and have an excitement for the mission of independent, nonprofit journalism. If it sounds like you would be a good fit for our team, apply today.

Chicago Public Media is an Equal Opportunity Employer, an Affirmative Action Employer and encourages applications from talented people of all backgrounds, orientations and walks of life.